1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to folding copy stands suitable for use in supporting sheet music, a book, or other reading or visual material, in an essentially upright position. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a highly portable copy stand that may be erected and disassembled in a minimum number of steps.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is populated with various kinds of portable and collapsible supports, book holders, sheet music and copy stands, and display easels and mounts. One of the objectives of such devices is to provide a relatively portable apparatus which will support reading or visual material in an essentially upright position without the need for the viewer to hold or brace the material with his or her hands. Prior art devices meet this objective with varying degrees of success. However, while many of the known devices are designed to fold for ease of transport and storage, the devices in the prior art are nonetheless deficient in many ways. The subject invention is designed to suit the many purposes of such a device. Further, it is designed to improve on the operational rigidity of such devices and to increase the ease and convenience of use, transportation, and storage. Thus, while the range of possible uses of the present invention is broad, it is especially well suited for use as a copy stand, sheet music holder, or book holder, and more particularly well suited to meet the needs of musicians, students, computer operators, typists, and other possible users who routinely travel to work away from the home or office.
Representative book holder devices in the prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,798 (Clark), which discloses a portable book stand fabricated from a planar panel of substantially rigid material. The stand includes a book support surface, a shelf extending outwardly from that surface and a plurality of tab-like support members which function as supports for the shelf and the support surface. Each of the supports are in turn supported by auxiliary tab-like supports which retain them in position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,416 (Choi) discloses a foldable book stand comprising front and rear surfaces, the front surface having substantially parallel transverse crease lines across the lower portion. The front surface folds in on itself in opposite directions along the crease lines, and the rear surface has triangular lateral flanges which are extended from the rear surface along a horizontal crease line. The lateral flanges contain slots and the transverse support member contains end tabs for engaging in the slots, so that the book stand is readily convertible from a flat folded state to an assembled state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,128 (White) discloses a device for use as a reading stand or writing support surface. It includes a base panel, an upper support panel, a hinge connecting one side of the two panels, and an elastic band page holder for holding the pages of a book open against the support panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,146 (Raggiotti) discloses a portable reading desk formed from a single piece of thin, flat, generally rectangular stock which is cut and creased into three portions that can be folded either flat for travel or into a three dimensional configuration for supporting reading material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,527 (Smith) discloses a collapsible support structure for use as an easel or book support. It is self-supporting in its fully erect configuration, presenting a plurality of forwardly facing panels which stand in a slightly inclined or substantially vertical fashion, and a forwardly extending ledge extending from the bottom portion of the support panels, which ledge rests flat on an underlying surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,076 (Viglietta) discloses a foldable or collapsible display device comprising transverse fold lines which form three foldable sections, including a foldable base. The base of the device has lockable flaps that may be folded and snapped into notches for locking the base at a suitable angle to the main upright support portion of the display. The rear surfaces of the two upright sections of the display include a stiffening member with a longitudinal fold line, and the stiffening member extends laterally out and away from the rear surface of the panels to provide structural reinforcement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,474,659 (Ebert) discloses a foldable display device and easel of substantially rectangular contour, which, when erected, rests on the lower edge of the surface for supporting visual material. The support surface is comprised of two panels which fold together via a transverse fold. Affixed to the rear surfaces of the support panels are four laterally extending hinged wings which swing out from the rear surface to provide structural stability.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,840,659 (Eburne) discloses a simple easel comprising an extending hinge member which swings laterally out and away from the rear surface of a picture or picture frame to support it substantially upright.
The above-described representative devices do not exhaust the possible list of disclosed collapsible supports, book holders, copy stands, and display easels and mounts. Other devices in the indicated or closely-related subject areas include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,649 (Neumann); U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,199 (Nemeth); U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,393 (Menaged); U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,504 (Degenholtz); U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,967 (Sack); U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,669 (Smith); U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,605 (Parekh); U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,777 (Ketterer); U.S. Pat. No. 2,992,500 (Hayhow); U.S. Pat. No. 2,533,874 (Burr); U.S. Pat. No. 2,375,190 (Botts); and U.S. Pat. No. 2,204,881 (Belleisle).
While the above-described and above-indicated structures and configurations provide partial solutions to the demands of potential users, none provide a completely satisfactory balance of the primary objectives. Clark, for example, does not provide a flat folded configuration and requires attachment of parts in its assembly. The present invention folds flat and does not require the attachment or detachment of parts in assembly and disassembly, respectively.
Choi, White, Raggiotti do not include any folds which increase the planar support surface area sufficient to support large open sheets of paper, and further do not fold into a configuration smaller than the planar support surface in the assembled configuration. The present invention provides both.
Smith provides a planar support surface with two vertical fold lines, and the device, in the folded configuration, comprises six layers of material thickness. The forwardly extending ledge, somewhat comparable to the shelf in the present invention, is not elevated and is not positioned at an approximately right angle relative to the support surface. The present invention provides an elevated shelf at right angle to the support surface and folds into a compact and transportable, essentially planar surface of only four panels thickness.
Unlike the present invention, neither Viglietta nor Ebert have an elevated shelf to support reading or visual material, but only a base section which lies flat on an underlying surface; further, the fold lines in Viglietta and Ebert are transverse so as to provide additional height for the upright support, rather than vertical, so as to provide additional width, as in the present invention. Finally, Viglietta folds to a thickness of six sections, whereas the present invention folds to a four layer thickness.
Finally, Eburne is simply the well-known desktop picture frame easel. It does not provide a shelf to support reading material or sheet music, and it is not designed for portability or to fold into a highly compact configuration.
Many of the devices in the prior art entail numerous steps in the assembly (unfolding) process, while an embodiment of the present invention can be opened in either one continuous motion or in two to four short steps and without requiring the attachment or removal of parts. Many of the stands in the prior art are bulky and heavy even when disassembled or folded. In the present invention, no removal or attachment of separate parts is required, no separately operating parts need be manipulated, all of the parts are integrally formed, and all moving parts operate in coordination with one another. Many prior art devices have several component parts and many require tools for assembly and disassembly. The component parts of the subject invention interact so as to minimize the total number of parts. Additionally, when the device is fabricated of preferred materials, and when the stand is in its closed configuration, it is smaller and lighter in weight than a typical newsstand magazine, and consequently can be easily transported and stored. Moreover, devices in the prior art do not provide a support surface rigid enough and large enough to support open sheet music or an open book while also folding to approximately notebook paper size for convenient transport.
The present invention achieves these objectives in a superior fashion to the devices in the prior art.